Black Bear Drags Boy Scout Leader Into Cave

This is one Boy Scout outing three teenagers will never forget.

It was around noon when their scout leader, 50-year-old Christopher Petronino, went to show the kids a cave he’s known about since the 1980s near Boonton, New Jersey. 

But what Petronino did not realize is that there was a bear in the cave hibernating, or at least attempting to hibernate.

As the scout leader stepped into a small crevice leading to the cave, suddenly like a horror film the bear grabbed his foot and pulled him in.

The boys called 911, and as they waited for an emergency crew to arrive, they coaxed the animal out of the cave with food, according to NJ.com.

When rescue officials arrived about an hour later they found the scout leader bleeding from the head, neck and arm.

According to rescuers, Petronino used a small rock hammer to fight back against the bear. The man then pulled his sweatshirt over his shoulders and curled up into a fetal position to avoid further injury.

“It’s a small cave,” Dave Oaks, who owns a nearby horse farm, told the local CBS station. “If you see a cave, you shoudl think twice before going in there. The last thing you want to do is poke your nose into a cave where there is a bear trying to hybernate.”

The scout master was airlifted to a local hospital and is reportedly going to be okay. 

For more stories about bear attacks click here.

Photo credit: Dreamstime